Tennis Meets Tough Penn Away; Crimson Favored in Close Match

The tennis team travels to Penn's hard surface courts today for the first major test of the season. Penn is a traditional contender, and is especially tough at home since most visiting players are not used to playing on hard surface courts.

Harvard beat Penn last year, 7-2. The Crimson dropped first and second singles, but won everything else.

"Penn is a good team, but I think we'll beat them with our depth. They've had a lot of trouble with their doubles in the past few years, so we'll have the edge there, too," coach Jack Barnaby said.

John Adams, who is Penn's captain as a junior, will be returning at first singles. Adams was a finalist in the NCAA Indoor Championships this winter, and Harvard captain Bill Washauer will have to be at the top of his game to avenge last year's loss to Adams.

Other returning Penn lettermen are Greg Kail. George Rork and Bill Hait, playing two, three and five singles, respectively, Sophomore Jay Schartz has been playing at number four, but the most promising newcomer is Bill MacDonnell, a former Canadian Junior Tennis champion who also plays hockey for Penn.

Penn coach Al Malloy has been dissatisfied with his doubles so far this season, and has done a lot of experimenting. Malloy likes to team his strong players with weaker ones, but this system has been generally unsuccessful against Harvard.

Joe Cavanagh has been moved up to number two singles for today's match. He beat Dave Fish in a challenge match last fall, but dropped to number three to give his injured shoulder a rest. Saturday's 6-2, 6-0 win against Williams convinced Barnaby that Cavanagh has regained his old form.

Penn and Harvard both lost to Princeton last year, but ended up co-champions of the Ivy League when the Tigers forfeited the remainder of their schedule after the Kent State killings.